Liberal candidate booted over alleged racism still running under party banner

MONTREAL – Whether Michael Ignatieff wants him or not, a jettisoned candidate is running under the Liberal banner.

The Liberal leader booted Quebec candidate Andre Forbes from the party last week over allegations he once described aboriginal people as “featherheads” and questioned their work ethic.

But Forbes has refused to pull out of the race, which means he will remain a Liberal on the ballot in the northern Quebec riding of Manicouagan.

A spokesman for Elections Canada said the Liberals cannot run another candidate in the riding because Forbes’ name was still on the list after Monday’s nomination deadline.

Canadian electoral law states a candidate cannot switch parties after submitting the necessary paperwork.

“I’m staying on as a candidate, so in other words, the party doesn’t have a candidate anymore — I’m in the chair,” Forbes said Monday in a phone interview from Sept-Iles, about 650 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.

Forbes founded a group called the Association for the Rights of Whites and is also a member of Metis Cote-Nord, a group that has denounced “special treatment” for minorities.

A letter from Metis Cote-Nord, published in January 2009 with Forbes as the contact person, asks: “If our Metis community was made (up) of Muslims, homosexuals or of an association of old ladies making moccasins out of caribou skin, would Hydro-Quebec consult with us? Yes.”

His former activities surfaced after the NDP released a list of statements he made years ago about aboriginals and other minorities.

Ignatieff dumped Forbes as a candidate hours after being questioned about his past.

But Forbes, nominated by the Liberals in 2009, maintained Monday he never signed the letter and argued the statements were made by chief Innu negotiators — not him.

“Those are their comments, not mine,” he said.

“We can say whatever we want, but at a certain point we must have proof.”

He said the controversy has been difficult for his family and terrible for his campaign, as many people in the riding assume he’s no longer running.

Still, he plans to forge ahead.

“We will live with it and we will work with it,” said Forbes, who wanted to stay on the ballot as a way of demonstrating that he didn’t do anything wrong.

“I really like boxing — we’re going 12 rounds and we’re in the 10th round and we’re going until the 12th.”

But his battle in Manicouagan won’t be easy: the Liberals finished third in the riding in the 2008 election, nearly 36 percentage points behind the Bloc Quebecois.

Technically, a Forbes victory would be a Liberal victory, but he said he would sit as an Independent.

That’s the way Liberals would like it, too.

“We would have preferred that Mr. Forbes withdraw his candidacy in order for us to run another candidate, but election laws are such that the party cannot withdraw his candidacy on his behalf,” party spokeswoman Sarah Bain wrote in an email.

“This does not change the fact that his comments and prior affiliations in no way represent the Liberal Party of Canada, and that he is no longer our candidate.”

She said Manicouagan is the only riding — out of the 308 across Canada — without a Liberal-recognized candidate.